The "ground zero mosque" and the wisdom of voltaire

I have to confess that the idea of a mosque anywhere near ground zero kinda bugs me. Not because I think the place is "sacred", nor is it because I think, as Giuliani does, that muslims should refrain from building a mosque/cultural center out of "sensitivity". No, the simple fact is that I don't like mosques anywhere, for the same reason that I don't like churches: I think that whatever else they are, they are monuments to superstition, irrationality, closed-mindedness, and bigotry. Ultimately, I'm inclined to agree with Christopher Hitchens, that religion poisons everything. To that extent, the ideal number of new mosques we should be building is the same as the number of new churches, i.e., zero.

But given that there are churches, and given that there are mosques, then I think the more the better. On this score, I like to fall back on Voltaire's observation about England, that it was a land "of many faiths but only one sauce." His point was that far from being a threat to the stability of society, diversity of opinion was actually its foundation. "If there were only one religion in England, there would be danger of despotism," he wrote. "If there were only two they would cut each other's throats; but there are 30, and they live in peace."

The Cordoba project has been repeatedly described as a 13-storey "raised middle finger" aimed at the relatives of the victims of 9/11. That is precisely the wrong way of thinking about it. If anything, it would be a raised middle finger aimed directly at America's most implacable enemies.

For the full argument, read my column in today's Ottawa Citizen.